Rhino May Fall Prey To Extinction

October 25, 1985|By Ray Moseley, Chicago Tribune.

HARARE, ZIMBABWE — The African black rhinoceros is a creature of low intelligence, dim eyesight and ungainly demeanor. But, for all his defects, he has managed to survive for 60 million years and a lot of people even find him lovable.

Within another decade, however, the rhino could be extinct in the wild, according to conservationists. He is under relentless attack from poachers.

There were probably more than a million rhino in Africa in the early 1800s. Today there may be no more than 8,000, and the only sizable population --an estimated 1,500 to 3,000--live in Zimbabwe`s Zambezi Valley, downstream from Lake Kariba.

``Here the rhino is making his last stand,`` said Richard Pitman, chairman of the Zambezi Society, a private conservation group. ``We still have the infrastructure to protect them.``

But Zimbabwe doesn`t have all the money it needs to protect them, and it has launched a worldwide appeal for funds to save the rhino.

The problem has acquired some urgency because poachers for the first time have started to attack the Zimbabwe rhino. Coming across the Zambezi River from Zambia in fishermen`s dugouts, they have killed 58 rhino since January, stripping them of their horns and leaving the carcasses to rot.

The Zimbabwe rainy season begins in November and, by January, there will be high grass that will make it difficult to track the poachers. ``Then we are in trouble,`` Pitman said.

The Zimbabwe National Conservation Trust, an umbrella group representing various conservation societies, is seeking several million dollars to equip an enlarged government antipoaching force to deal with the problem. Pitman said the money is needed to buy a truck, several four-wheel-drive vehicles, inflatable boats and outboard motors, canoes, radios, tents, sleeping bags, boots and other items.

For the last five or six years there have been frequent warnings from conservation experts that the rhino could become extinct. ``But it seems that you have to get down to the last 50 animals before people notice,`` said Pitman, who is chairing the Save the Rhino campaign.

``While the world has been looking at whales and pandas, the rhino has been careering toward extinction in one of the greatest conservation disasters of all time.``

It is the horn that makes the rhino valuable, and if he becomes extinct it will be because of Arab oil wealth and Asian superstition.

In North Yemen, a country of medieval backwardness which abuts Saudi Arabia, rhino horn traditionally has been carved to form the handles of daggers, called djambias, that are worn by men of status.

For years that was a nuisance problem, nothing more. But then thousands of Yemeni men went to work in the Saudi oilfields, and suddenly there was enough money around for every male above the age of 13 or 14 to own a djambia. So the slaughter of rhinos began in earnest. Today almost one of every two rhinos that is killed by poachers serves the Yemeni market.

The others go to the Far East and Southeast Asia, where they have another frivolous use. Rhino horn, ground into powder, is mistakenly believed by many Asians to have medicinal properties.

It is sold as a cure for such ailments as ``low fevers,`` vomiting with blood, measles, diphtheria, fits, boils and chicken pox.

Some elderly Asian men also regard rhino horn as an aphrodisiac, but its sales for this purpose are limited.

A rhino horn may weigh between 2.5 and 12 pounds and sells for nearly $14,000 a pound.

The destruction of Africa`s remaining rhino has been alarming in the last 25 years. In 1960 there were still about 100,000 of them, but by 1980 that had dropped to 15,000.

Kenya had 1,500 rhino in 1980. Today it has 500 or fewer, and visitors to its famed game parks are extremely lucky if they see one.

The Central African Republic had 3,000 in 1980, but a recent survey turned up none at all. The rhino is extinct in Uganda and Botswana has just 10. In some countries the surviving rhino are so scattered that males and females may never meet up to reproduce.

Tanzania is believed to have a few hundred left, and the same is true of Zambia`s Luangwa Valley, which had 3,000 in 1980.

Pitman said Zambian poachers have moved into Zimbabwe because there are so few left in their own country they have become difficult to find.

Zimbabwe game wardens have engaged in several shootouts with gangs of up to 16 Zambian poachers, and 2 of the poachers have been killed this year.

But poaching has flourished across Africa because people ranging from lowly paid game wardens to high government officials have been bought off by the poachers.

Some sources here said there is strong evidence that high Zambian officials have been involved in the illegal trade. They also said rhino horn has been smuggled out of Zambia in North Korean diplomatic pouches.

Some countries, such as South Korea and Taiwan, still legally import rhino products. In others the trade has been banned but it continues to flourish because of official corruption.